Federal Government: General Information

• GPO Access, The U.S. Government Printing Office's starting point for "official information" of the three branches of government.

• FirstGov, "The U.S. Government's Official Web Portal" for Citizens, Business, and Government Employees

• Documents Center, University of Michigan, Federal and state government information arranged by branch and subject.

• Frequently Used Sites Related to U.S. Federal Government Information, Recommendations from American Library Association's GODORT (Government Documents Round Table) and FDTF (Federal Documents Task Force), arranged by government branch, level and subject.

• Howard University Library System, Try the links under the term Government, for Federal and state information.

• U.S. House of Representatives, Find representatives by zip code, read about committee jurisdiction and the history of the House, choose Currently on the House Floor or Vote Information and you will also find a link regarding Public Disclosure on members' travel and gift records, or use Kids in the House as an educational tool.  You may be led to the Thomas site, if you search for bills or hearings.

• U.S. Senate, Similar to the U.S. House site, the Senate maintains a myriad of resources.  Choose Reference to find the glossary, virtual reference desk, Senatorial organization chart, and a how-to section on finding bills, votes, and Federal publications.  Clicking Committees allows a check of committee hearings and meetings.  The Legislation and Records link displays a Calendar of legislation and voting records of senators.  Committees also leads to the link for Senate Rules.  Senators, of course, is the link to each Senator's email and web site.

• White House, The web site bears the mark of each successive President, with President Clinton's as the first White House Web Site.  You are likely to find sections on policies, news, executive orders, proclamations, nominations, speeches, the history of American Presidents, and virtual tours of aspects of the White House.  The National Archives and Records Administration has archived available portions of the five versions of the Clinton White House Web Site at http://searchclinton.archives.gov/.

• INFOMINE, University of California, Riverside's collection contains sources as diverse as electronic books and journals, mailing lists, bulletin boards, and online library catalogs.

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Federal Government: Legislative and Regulatory Information

• The Legislative Process, United States House of Representatives explains how Congress creates your laws.

• Thomas, Retrieve pending or enacted legislation, analyze Congressional Record text or reports, read parliamentarians' essays on law-making, etc.

• GPO Access, Legislative, Browse this index of congressional information from the U.S. Government Printing Office, or Gateway Legacy Sites, offering information through universities.

• NARA, National Archives and Records Administration provides access to the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) among other primary sources.

• LII, Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute.  LII's primary-law web site includes the CFR, U.S. Code, U.S. Constitution, and uniform laws.

• U.S. Federal Government Agencies Directory, Locate Federal agencies via Louisiana State University.

• Guide to Presidential Documents, Penn State University.  Executive orders and proclamations are often considered part of the legislative process.  Penn State describes such Executive branch documents and the sources where they may be published.

• Agency Approach to Locating Government Information on the Internet, Western Illinois University's steps to research by accessing Federal agencies, partial list of agencies

• CyberCemetery, University of North Texas.  Research for Federal regulations may involve reviewing agencies' web sites.  UNT provides (as they once existed) access to a selection of sites that the government has removed.

• Congress.Org, Consult directories of officials at Federal, state, and local levels, read current awareness postings, study fellow constituents' letters to their government representatives, etc.

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State Information

• LII, Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute collects constitutions, statutes, and related legislative information.  Hold your mouse over Constitutions & codes and click on State constitutions & codes.

• Legislative Source Book, State Legislatures, State Laws and State Regulations, Web Site Links and Telephone Numbers, Law Librarians' Society of D.C. provides links to state government web sites for statutes, laws, and regulations as well as a list of businesses which can be hired to provide state legislative histories.

• ACR, Administrative Code and Registers Section, National Association of Secretaries of State, ACR provides links where available for the 50 states' rules (proposed and adopted). 

• American Law Sources On-Line addresses the branches of government by state, supplemented by references to secondary sources (handbooks, forms, law reviews).

• Municipal Codes, Selected Web Sites from the Seattle Public Library.

• Virtual Law Library, Indiana University School of Law.  Under the "Browse the Virtual Library" heading, use "By information source", select "State Government" for the dropdown box, and click "Browse".  Besides the usual government sources, you may find departments, offices, directories, state projects, associations, and law reviews.

• Finding State Legislation: A Web Tutorial, Southwestern Illinois College provides these sections: Find Documents, Trace Legislative History, and Understand Your Legislature with screen shots of web pages as examples for doing state legislative history research.

• Findlaw connects to commonly-asked-for government and legal resources by state.  Try clicking the state, then Government Information.

• State and Local Government on the Net includes D.C. and U.S. territories, with such specialized subject areas as state think tanks, health information, and national associations within states.

• State Web Locator, Center for Information Law and Policy, Illinois Institute of Technology, includes D.C. and U.S. territories, contains the standard set of links for each branch and connections to House of Representatives members.

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International and Foreign Information

• Country Studies, Library of Congress, supplies text of the Federal Research Division's books on "lesser known areas of the world".

• Nations of the World, Library of Congress.  This site may be a more inclusive list of countries than Country Studies (above), but it is a list of links only rather than text.

• "Law About"... International, Transnational, Comparative Law, Cornell's Legal Information Institute explains Comparative Law, Foreign Relations Law, International Law, and International Trade Law and directs you to applicable parts of the U.S. Constitution, Federal laws and regulations, cases, law reviews, and international materials.  Cornell's Global page is helpful for locating World Legal Materials that are Internet accessible. 

• Documents Center, University of Michigan.  International Agencies and Information on the Web are listed alphabetically, with sections on NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), IGOs (Intergovernmental Organizations), and treaties.

• International Documents Collection, Northwestern University.  Notice the links for Foreign Governments and Intergovernmental Organizations. 

• Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases, NYU's page may be a good starting point because it provides broad subject category links on issues that connect nations to each other:  Human Rights, International Criminal Law, Electronic Commerce, etc.  Foreign Collections by Jurisdiction links to web sites on individual countries. 

• Useful Links to Foreign and International Sources Online, Los Angeles County Law Library, links to "frequently requested" materials such as OAS (Organization of American States) and 'unusual' materials like Supreme Court Decisions Around the World.  Scrolling down the page provides the link to treaties and an explanation of treaty research.

• Treaties and International Agreements, Stanford University discusses resources for treaties (of which the U.S. is and is not a party) and lists common abbreviations.

• U.S. Department of State, Read about Countries and Regions (Background Notes is the sub-link), travel, business with the State Department and overseas, embassies, etc.  Some volumes of the State Department's publication, Foreign Relations of the United States, are found under the link, History, Education and Culture.

• United Nations, The official UN web site offers a member directory, information on conferences, and humanitarian endeavors as well as an International Law section addressing treaties, documents, and international courts. 

• Model UN Research, Stanford University provides seven steps for research involving the UN and an explanation about the process of passing UN resolutions.

• Research Guides, Georgetown University Law Center maintains International and Foreign guidance on general to specific topics:  treaties, the United Nations, the European Union, journal article sources, customs law, war crimes, Asian research, etc.

• American Law Sources On-Line explains the structure of government in North American countries and maintains links to U.S. Federal, Canadian, and Mexican law.

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Statistical Resources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor

• Business & Economics Numeric Data, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, lists sources of electronic Business & Economics Numeric Data.

• Fedstats, Search U.S. Federal agency statistics, including MapStats of specific areas.

• InfoNation, United Nations, Choose countries listed by continent and create statistical tables on Geography, Economy, Population, and Social Indicators.

• Statistical Information, University of North Texas's Government Information Connection leads to other universities' choices of U.S., State and Local, and Foreign and International data.  The LexisNexis Statistical links will not work for non-UNT students, but population and economy links form Princeton and University of Chicago are listed, too.

• U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce.  Explore headings like People, Business, Geography, Specialized topics, or browse alphabetically: V for voting, etc.  American Factfinder is another database available for statistics.

• STAT-USA/Internet, U.S. Department of Commerce.  Use State of the Nation for domestic statistics (CPI, GDP, construction, employment, industry, and monetary) or try Globus/NTDB for daily leads on trade and procurement activity, and marketing and investing opportunities in foreign countries.

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Additional Resources

• Library of Congress, Search the national library catalog, stroll through the electronic exhibitions, find historical documents of the American Memory Project, etc.

• U.S. Congressional Serial Set, What It Is and Its History, GPO Access.  An enviable addition to a government documents library, the voluminous Serial Set, started in 1817, is described. 

• Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, from A to Z, includes a link for Military Acronyms and Glossaries. 

• Federation of American Scientists, since 1945, an organization of "scientific perspective" on "public policy".  Click Intelligence, then Official Documents for debates, CRS (Congressional Research Service) reports, Congressional and presidential publications, (e.g., declassified National Security Action Memos).  Among the other subjects are Government secrecy, Terrorism, and Arms. 

• Government Document Brochures and Pamphlets, University of Buffalo, State University of New York.  The electronic collection of library-scanned publications is arranged by subject (Aging, Culture, En Espanol, Wildlife, etc.) and lets you review historical and 'recent' documents online.  Uncle Sam Migrating Government Publications via the University of Memphis is an alternative. 

• Online Government Publications, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, lists some "major" publications online by topic (the workforce, budget, etc.) including CRS reports. 

• ScienceDirect, Click Journals for alphabetically arranged titles offering abstracts and articles, e.g., G for Government Information Quarterly or J for Journal of Government Information.

• American Library Association's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT), News about public access to government information from a national organization.

• Learning SuDocs Call Numbers, SuDocs stands for Superintendent of Documents.  This web site from Michigan State University clarifies the meaning of each part of a SuDoc classification number, used to catalog a government document in a library.

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Still Don't Know Where to Look?...

• Meta-Subject Index to Government Information, This incredibly inclusive index might supply a link to needed information.  For example, try the category, Competition-Corals for the many Congressional links.

• GPO Access, Online Resources:  A-Z Resource List, You might use this starting point if unsure which part of the Government Printing Office's web site to use.  Supplementing the alphabetical list of government resources, this portal has links on the left a) for searching multiple government databases simultaneously and b) for viewing links according to government branch.

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Federal Legislative History

For explanations of Federal legislative research and suggested sources, see:

• Legislative Source Book, Law Librarians' Society of D.C.

• Legislative History, Research Guide from Georgetown University Law Library

• Federal Legislative History, University of Washington School of Law:                               

•     -  Uses an Environmental Law Example to demonstrate interpreting a U.S. Code section

•     -  Links to Indiana University's U.S. Congress-Year Conversion Guide                                                                                              

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Finding U.S. Congressional Reports (Electronic Sources)*

*Remember, in the Howard University Law Library, a selection of reports also appears a) in print in U.S.C.C.A.N. (United States Code Congressional and Administrative News) starting in 1948 and b) in microfiche through publishers CIS or GPO starting in 1985.

(P) or (S/I) or (U) designates those electronic sources for which use requires payment or a subscription/Internet connection through Howard's law school (as a student or faculty member) or, in the case of Congressional Universe, using the source within the Law Library will suffice.  Free web sources appear first in the following list.

Lastly, some of these sources are interconnected.  A Senate web site may lead to Thomas or a House site or GPO.  But you may find that one site has additional information not included at another, e.g., Congressional Universe and Lexis have similar holdings of information, but perhaps Congressional Universe is superior as an orientation to the legislative process.

GPO (Government Printing Office), United States Congress, Senate, House and Executive Reports, 105th Congress-

Besides the ability to search by Congressional session and chamber for a particular report, GPO allows you to find a list of all reports for a session.  Directions are at the site.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/index.html

via the U.S. Senate

Click Committees, choose one, and search for words indicating reports.  For instance, you might try links like Committee Publications, as for the Armed Services Committee.

http://www.senate.gov

via the U.S. House of Representatives

Choose a committee and look for links to committee or subcommittee hearing/meeting materials.

http://www.house.gov/house/CommitteeWWW.html

Thomas, Legislative Information on the Internet

Under Committees Information, choose Committee Reports, select a session of Congress, then you can browse a list of reports or search by report bill number, committee, etc.

http://thomas.loc.gov

Congressional Universe from LexisNexis/Congressional Information Service     (S/I) or (U)

Use the library catalog at http://daniel.law.howard.edu and search by title, Congressional Universe.  Then click the link that appears, Search Congressional Universe via Internet.  Use the link for CIS Index to search by subject, committee, title, bill, report, public law, or statutes at large number.  The Publications link is another option.

Committee reports are provided beginning in 1989.  The database is updated daily when Congress is in session.  For reports prior to1989, Congressional Universe supplies only abstract information, found by using the link Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969.

Westlaw    (P) or (S/I)

Available by subscription to law students and faculty or customers submitting credit card.  Search the database LH, which stands for Legislative History - U.S. Code.  (Using uppercase letters is not required.)  LH contains the same selective reports (from1948 to 1989) that are provided in U.S.C.C.A.N. (available in Westlaw and in print in the library).  Comprehensive coverage of reports starts in 1990. 

Once in Westlaw, start at the Law School or Westlaw tab and type LH into the 'Search these Databases' field.  You can request a particular report in quotation marks:  "s rep 104-98".  Or you can search using Terms and Connectors:  report "judiciary committee" & da (aft 01/01/1948) & da (bef 01/01/1950) or rely on Natural Language (make sure to use the Natural Language link for this type of search):  judiciary committee report 1948 and 1949 and 1950

Another database option within Westlaw is USCCAN-REP, which provides a fill-in-the-box template for finding reports with labels such as report, public law, or bill numbers, popular names of laws, and USCCAN citations.

http://lawschool.westlaw.com

Lexis    (P) or (S/I)

Available by subscription to law students and faculty or customers submitting credit card.  In Lexis, reports are in the Lexis 'library' called LEGIS and the 'file' CMTRPT, so the short title to search in is LEGIS;CMTRPT.  (Using uppercase letters is not required.)  Reports are provided starting in 1990 although coverage is incomplete for years 1989-1991 which represent the 101st and 102nd Congresses.

To access reports, go to the Search tab, Sources tab, under Look for a Source click Find a Source, type legis;cmtrpt (use the semicolon between those abbreviations and click the radio button for Short Name).  Or, go to the Search tab, Sources tab, click the Legal tab, Legislation and Politics folder, U.S. Congress folder, and Committee Reports link.

A third method is to start at the Search tab, Sources tab, Legal tab, click Federal Legal - U.S. folder, Legislative Histories & Materials folder, and Committee Reports.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool

A Century of Law-Making for a New Nation from the American Memory project of the Library of Congress, U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-...

American Memory provides selections of reports and documents from U.S. Congressional Serial Set volumes, ranging from the 23rd to the 64th Congresses.  Maps considered to be Congressional documents or supplements to reports may also appear.  Use the link for U.S. Serial Set then click Browse or Search.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw or http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html  

Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS Reports)

These reports are not those created by Congressional committees as part of the legislative process. CRS Reports are composed for Congress by its "research arm", Congressional Research Service, which is part of the legislative branch.  For more information about CRS Reports, see http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/10mostwanted from the Center for Democracy and Technology.  For information about CRS, visit http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo. 

You can search for this government research staff's reports, which besides having value for members of Congress, may be of interest to the public.  Several suggestions:

Law Librarians' Society of D.C. provides links to Selected Congressional Research Service Reports on Congress and its Procedures as well as links to most other CRS reports that are online.

http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/CRS-Congress.htm

Congressperson Christopher Shays, Connecticut's Fourth District

Some CRS Products are available from the U.S. House of Representatives because Mr. Shays conscientiously links you to the House.Gov server. 

http://www.house.gov/shays/resources/leginfo/crs.htm

At the University of Michigan Documents Center, click Legislative Branch, and then click Congressional Research Service.

http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/federal.html

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis maintains fifteen links with a wealth of CRS reports on subjects like intellectual property and campaign finance and which may be organized chronologically or by CRS report number.

http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/crs.html

Federation of American Scientists

Use the link Intelligence, and then Official Documents will lead to CRS Reports.

http://www.fas.org

National Council for Science and Environment

You can browse by topic or use the Quick or Advanced search methods.  Over 1,000 CRS Reports are stored here.

http://www.ncseonline.org/NLE/CRS

U.S. Department of State

You may find lists of CRS Issue Briefs and CRS Reports by year (regarding international issues, intelligence, etc.).

http://fpc.state.gov/c4564.htm

Another strategy is to use the search engine, Google, by typing in the search:  "crs report for congress" filetype:pdf.

You might try using Google in the Advanced Search mode, too.  This allows you to limit your format to pdfs, the English language, etc.

 http://www.google.com

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Finding U.S. Congressional Hearings (Electronic Sources)*

*Remember, in the Howard University Law Library, hearings also appear in microfiche through publishers CIS or GPO starting in 1985.  Some (usually more recent) hearings or books about hearings are in print on library shelves and can be discovered through the library's catalog, Daniel, http://daniel.law.howard.edu.  Some sources below do not contain the actual text of hearings but function as indexes with information about the hearings. 

(P) or (S/I) or (U) designates those electronic sources for which use requires payment or a subscription/Internet connection through Hoard's law school (as a student of faculty member) or, in the case of Congressional Universe, using the source within the Law Library will suffice.  Free web sources appear first in the following list.

Lastly, some of these sources may lead to the same places.  University of Michigan may simply take you to a Senate site or the Senate may redirect you to the GPO.  However, one sit  may have additional information not included at another, e.g., notices about committee meetings as well as hearings, or the responses of Congress members to a witness as well as testimony of the main speaker.  And you may prefer the way one web site presents documents:  a hearing from GPO may provide the title page, table of contents, and list of committee members, whereas Congressional Universe may provide mainly testimony of they key witness with the words appearing compressed on the web page. 

GPO (Government Printing Office), United States Congress, Congressional Hearings, 105th Congress-

Besides the ability to search by Congressional session and chamber for a particular hearing, GPO allows you to find a list of all hearings for a session.  Directions are at the site.

http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/cong017.html

via the Senate

Click Committees then choose one for hearing information and possible testimony.

http://www.senate.gov

via the U.S. House of Representatives

Choose a committee and look for links to committee or subcommittee hearing materials.

http://www.house.gov/house/CommitteeWWW.html

U.S. House of Representatives Committee Hearings Index

This House page lists (by committee) links to hearings index pages with hearings starting from the 105th Congress.

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/index.htm

Thomas, Legislative Information on the Internet

Under Committee Information, choose House or Senate Committees, select one, and you may find links to hearings, statements, transcripts, or schedules.

http://thomas.loc.gov

University of Michigan Documents Center, Congressional Hearings on the Web

Search by committee, agency, or lobby group to be linked to a relevant web site.

http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/hearings.html

Congressional Universe from LexisNexis/Congressional Information Service    (S/I) or (U)

Use the library catalog at http://daniel.law.howard.edu and search by title:  Congressional Universe.  Then click the link that appears, Search Congressional Universe via Internet.

For 1970 to the present, use the link for CIS Index and click Witness to search by witness or organization.  Transcripts and witness-submitted statements are available starting in 1988.  You can search a variety of other ways.  If you know the hearing number, e.g., S. Hrg. 106-472, use the steps:  CIS Index, Document number, then input your number and use the dropdown box.

For older hearings, use the link for Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969 and click Witness to search by witness or organization.  You might also start at the link CIS Index and search by bill or Senate hearing number (Document number), committee, publication title, or subject.  For hearings before 1988, only abstracts are provided.

Westlaw    (P) or (S/I)

Available by subscriptions to law students and faculty or customers submitting credit card.  From the Law School or Westlaw tab, type USTESTIMONY or CONGTMY in the 'Search these Databases' field, for U.S. congressional testimony starting in 1993 and 1994 respectively.  Westlaw has other databases affiliated with hearings such as CORPSCAN-CONG for corporate scandals discussed in hearings.  (Using uppercase letters is not required.)

http://lawschool.westlaw.com

Lexis    (P) or (S/I)

Available by subscription to law students and faculty or customers submitting credit card.  In Lexis, hearings are in the Lexis 'library' called LEGIS and the 'file' HEARNG, so the short title to search in is LEGIS;HEARNG.  (Using uppercase letters is not required.) 

To access hearings, go to the Search tab, Sources tab, under Look for a Source click Find a Source, type legis;hearng (use the semicolon between those abbreviations and click the radio button for Short Name).  You will be taken to a section where you can design a search from a choice of two sources.

Or, go to the Search tab, Sources tab, under Look for a Source choose the Legal tab, click the Legislation & Politics folder, U.S. Congress folder, and Committee Hearing Transcripts folder.  You will be taken to a section where you can design a search from a choice of four sources.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool

CapitolHearings.org or C-span

Watch hearings as they occur through this partnership of C-span and Congressional Quarterly.  You can also watch hearings live on C-span.

http://capitolhearings.org or http://www.c-span.org 

Federal News Service (for recent hearings)    (P)

Abstracts of hearings are available for the last three months.  Registration is required for full-text transcripts or to access the FNS Transcript Archive.  Click the link for Congressional Hearing Transcripts.

http://www.fnsg.com

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